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President Donald Trump lashed out at ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl on Tuesday after he was questioned about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s recent comments on cracking down on “hate speech” following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
The exchange occurred after Karl asked the president at the White House, “What do you make of Pam Bondi saying she’s going to go after hate speech? Is that, I mean, a lot of people, a lot of your allies, say hate speech is free speech.”
“She’ll probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly,” Trump replied, speaking over Karl as he asked if that would be appropriate. “You have a lot of hate in your heart. Maybe they will come after ABC. ABC paid me $16 million recently for a form of hate speech. Your company paid me $16 million for a form of hate speech, so maybe they will have to go after you.”
TED CRUZ SAYS HATE SPEECH ‘ABSOLUTELY’ PROTECTED BY FIRST AMENDMENT FOLLOWING CHARLIE KIRK’S ASSASSINATION
The president was referring to the settlement of a defamation lawsuit with ABC over the way one of its top anchors, George Stephanopoulos, portrayed a jury verdict against Trump in the E. Jean Carroll civil trial. Stephanopoulos repeatedly said during an interview last year that Trump was held liable for rape rather than sexual abuse.
The lawsuit was dismissed last December after a settlement was reached with the network and Stephanopoulos, resulting in a $15 million payout to a future Trump library and $1 million to pay Trump’s legal fees.
Trump’s outburst against Karl came on the heels of comments made by Bondi this week pertaining to hate speech. The attorney general received pushback from both liberals and conservatives after she suggested Monday during a podcast interview that “hate speech” could be prosecuted by her Justice Department.
Bondi took to X on Tuesday to clarify her position, noting that hate speech would only be prosecuted when the language used crossed the line of calling for violence.
BONDI ‘HATE SPEECH’ REMARKS SPARK TORRENT OF CRITICISM FROM CONSERVATIVES
“Hate speech that crosses the line into threats of violence is NOT protected by the First Amendment. It’s a crime,” Bondi wrote. “For far too long, we’ve watched the radical left normalize threats, call for assassinations, and cheer on political violence. That era is over.”
While speaking to Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, on her podcast Monday, Bondi stated that the federal government will “target” those who leverage hate speech against others following the assassination of Kirk.
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“There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech, and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie, in our society,” Bondi said. “We will absolutely target you, go after you, if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”
Bondi was criticized on social media by individuals from both ends of the political spectrum, whose primary argument was that there is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment. Some cited Kirk himself in 2024, when he wrote that hate speech “does not exist legally in America.”
Fox News Digital reached out to ABC for comment.
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